Day Five

The weather was a marginally better today, but it was good enough for us to go riding which is the best bit.  After breakfast we saddled up and cycled towards the hot springs on the way to Nonghet.  Chris and Yeiha (not sure how to spell it) from ChildFund joined us on the ride.  It didn't take too long to get to the springs over the undulating hills, but some of us were slightly disappointed at what we saw.  When someone says hot springs, the first thing that comes to mind is a natural pool that is filled hot mineral spring waters.  What we got was a hand full of concrete pools that were filled from the hot springs nearby and they weren't even full.  In any case, the local people managing the pools began filling one up while we got changed.  Being on a strict time schedule, we didn't have very long there, but it was enough to relax for a little bit before having to get changed to go to one of the villages in Nonghet that Childfund is working in various capacities.  We all had to make sure we had pant that covered our knees and shirts that covered our shoulders, which was fine with me because it's cold here.  We jumped in the vans and off we were.

We drove the vans as far as we could before having to get out and walk the rest of the way.  It was a 25 minute, mostly uphill, trek to the village.  We waved to many locals along the way, particularly children, who were just as interested in us as we were in them.  This is not a place where tourist tend to come and visit.  It's not that they shouldn't, but most wouldn't even know they are there.  Anyway, back to the village.  As we arrived, the first site that catches your eye is the big beautiful school that ChildFund built in the village.  The children were on a lunch break so we weren't able to see them all in class, but it was impressive nonetheless.  We walked further in and were greeted by an ever growing number of people from the village wanting to see the visitors that had come here.  Whilst we were looking at the school, I noticed several people carrying what looked like bench seats from the school into the village.  When we came around the corner, we found out why.  They had set a very large table for us all to sit at to have lunch.  The stools were for us to sit on as they had already brought the tables for us to receive our meal on.  The women of the village had been busy preparing our meal while the kids played and the men greeted us.

Once we were seated, two elders were sat down at the head of the table and it was announced that they would be telling us about life before and after the war.  These gentlemen were 75 years old and could recall two wars in their lifetime; first when the Frech took control of the country and second the Vietnam war.  They spoke about the simple life they all lived and how they looked after themselves by farming the lands they occupied.  Then they spoke of the Vietnam war, but they didn't say very much.  The people that live here are from the ethnic group known as Mongs and they are very conservative and polite.  As such, they shy away from potentially offending their guests by putting forward a representation of the war that may be taken the wrong way, by say, an American visitor.  It turns out that they weren't saying much because they thought there might be Americans among us, so once we cleared up that we were all Australian and that nothing he said could offend us, he told us a little more.  Afraid was the dominant feeling among the villagers at the time.  They spoke about it being a very hard time to go about their lives as bombs were being dropped on a regular basis and people were dying.  They couldn't cook because the Americans would drop bombs on any location they saw evidence of life in and they couldn't wear their typical coloured clothing either as it stood out in the forest and made them targets, so they covered themeselves with leaves from the surrouding forrest.  They didn't say much more after that.

During their talk, each of us were handed a piece of sugarcane to eat.  It was a bit of a challenge getting through the outer layer to the good stuff, but when you did, it was worth it.  They then handed us all hard boiled eggs, which were no doubt from the countless chickens on this land.  One gentleman then came with a basket full of chicken legs and put one on each of our plates.  It was explained to us that because we were very important guests that we were being given the best part of the chicken for our lunch.  Their generosity is amazing.  They must have had to sacrifice a few chickens for our meal.  I thought this was the end of the meal and I would have been satisfied at that, but we were informed that the chicken leg was the entree and the main meal was to come.  Out came the bags of rice, more chicken (cooked in a different way) and a small bowl of the most amazing chilli I have ever had.  The chilli was hot, but it was enourmously tasty.  It had more than just chilli in it, but I could only make out the corriander. Whatever it was, it was awesome.  Once we had finished our meal, we were offered some of the Laos Rice Whiskey, which we were warned not to drink too much of if we want to be able to cycle the next day.  We all had some and I must say that it wasn't as potent as we were led to believe and was quite nice.

Once the meal was over, they put on a show for us.  Firstly a younger man with a vest made of metal tassles that jingled every time he moved, played an ancient instrument while performing a most active and energetic dance.  Then another man reluctantly (remember that these are shy, conservative people) sang a song of the Mong people for us.  He was followed by five adorable girls dressed in the traditional Mong outfit who performed a lovely dance for us while one of the men beat on a bucket to keep the beat, albeit quite badly as the girls struggled to keep in time.  It was still lovely.  Then the elders who were speaking to us before lunch were tussling over who would play the Mong flute for us.  For two 75 year old men, they were very nimble.  We eventually had a winner (or loser as the case may be) and we treated to a lovely tune.  With the festivities over, we took at tour of the village to look at the toilets that ChildFund has been helping to build and what we were largely raising funds for so that they can expand to include more families in the village.  We were told that approximatelt 93 families have had their own toilet installed with the help of ChildFund and were planning to grow this to over 400 families with the help of the funds that we all raised.  Truely wonderful work to improve hygene and give people some dignity back.

At the end of the tour, we jumped back on our bikes and rode towards Nonghet.  The guesthouse we are staying in is nice, but as you can imagine, has no internet connection, so my the time you are reading this, it will have been several days later.  Since we are getting more remote, Internet access is much harder to come by.  Tomorrow we are going to visit the Attorney General's Office and another village that ChildFund is working with.  We are going to see, among other things, the sports programs that ChildFund is running with the local communities, which I'm excited about.  Stay tuned for the next installment.  Oh and the finger is very black, blue with a hint of green.

Day Four

We've been in some pretty remote places over the last few days with no Internet access so here's the a delayed "Day Four" with more to follow:

Today was the wettest day we've seen so far.  It was raining the entire morning and was just about monsoonal so the call was made that we would delay our departure by an hour to see if it cleared up.  It didn't.  The call was made that it was too dangerous to ride so we all got in the vans and went to the Plains of Jars.  This is a very interesting place and a little difficult to describe.  It is a wide area where hundreds of stone "jars" have been placed there over the years.  These "jars" are hand carved out of stone and transported to this location over 40km away from where they were made.  Why? As a final resting place for the dead of course.  There are a group of people in Laos known as the Mong and it is their ancient tradition to place the bodies of their dead into these "jars", with some of their belongings, and lay them down to rest in this location.  It is not a practice that is used much any more though.  It is also a bit of a mystery as to why this particular location.  This site was also heavily bombed and while the area where the "jars" are has been cleared of UXOs, there are still clearly marked areas that haven't been swept clean and are no-go zones.  There are still plenty of reminders of the war at the Plain of Jars, with many craters created when bombs were dropped, still visually impacting, as are the trenches used by the local troops to move around in.  It was a very wet visit, but definitely worth it.

We jumped back in the vans and went back to the hotel to get all our gear and make another assessment as to wheter it would be OK to ride.  As is was still raining quite heavily, it was decided that we would get in the vans and drive to the next city on our schedule.  The views were great as always and all the usual suspects were out on the roads.  Despite those obstacles, I and several others wished we could be riding.  There has been a strange familiarity of the scenery for much of the trip so far and today it occurred to me; it looks and feels just like the countryside of Brazil.  The houses with shops underneath, mechanic workshops, kids running in the street, dogs, cats and all other animals around the place.  Anyway, I digress. We stopped to have lunch along the way to our next stop and were able to get on the bikes after that, but only for a short ride to Muang Kham where we would be staying for the night.  Once we settled in, we all got back on the bikes to go and visit a cave that was supposed to be a safe haven for farmers and villages during the war.  They had fled to this cave and set up schools, medical facilities, etc. inside to continue to function as a society in relative safety from the war going on outside.  The atrocities committed at this location by the US army is not really content to be discussed here, but ask me about it some time and I'll relay the story to you.  Among many feelings that this cave manifested in me, I was awestruck by the size of it and the engenuity of the people to make it a small subterrainian village to protect themselves.  On the ride back, we stopped alongside a villager's house where there were two women using a manual loom to create intricate patterns on some dresses they making to sell at the markets.  She informed us that it took 2-3 days to make one dress and if you saw what they were creating, you would imagine that it should take much longer.

We made it back to the hotel to freshen up and clean all the mud off us.  It had started raining while we were at the caves and combined with the muddy roads and the fact that it had been raining all day anyway, we were extremely dirty.  Chris Mastaglio, director of ChildFund Laos, joined us for dinner and gave us a quick briefing afterwards on the logistics for visiting the villages that ChildFund is working in.  He also gave us an update on all the work that ChildFund is doing in these villages.  Our fundraising efforts were towards the clean water and sanitary project, but they are also setting up schools for the kids of the area, teaching them about hygene and health in general, giving children (especially girls) a voice in the communities that are highly traditional and highly patriachal, sporting programs for the children, ensuring children are well nourished and more.  We are getting the first taste of the work being done by ChildFund in Nonghet tomorrow where we will stay for two nights.

We didn't get a chance to go to the hot springs today because of poor weather conditions and lighting.  We will ride there tomorrow morning before heading to Nonghet.  More updates tomorrow.  By the way, my finger is good in case you were wondering.  It has gone all shades of black, purple and green, but it still quite swollen. :-)
The photo below is a view of the mountain where the cave I described above was.

Day Three

I finally got some internet access so here's the update for day three.

Today we arrived in Phonsavan, but not without some hard work and a bit of drama too.  Phonsavan is home to the mysterious Plain of Jars and the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) office.  MAG is working with locals and other organisations to clear land for local farmers to use and lift themselves out of poverty.  There is not enough safe useable land in Laos as a result of the Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs) left over from the Vietnam war.  By clearing more land, farmers can produce more, sell more and earn more.  We visited the MAG office on arrival where we saw samples of the UXOs they are pulling up from the ground as well as reading several stories on the effect that MAG is having on the local community.

Now back to the cycling.  We left right after breakfast and cycled for a steady 40km or so with a couple of breaks in between.  The ride started out with us having to negotiate the local rush hour with trucks, buses, tuk tuks, scooters and other bikes, not to mention the pedestrians.  It didn't take long for us to be on the highway and out of the mad rush.  The terrain was up and down for a large part of the way, and then it started climbing.  The views were spectacular even though it was hard going, not to mention the seemingly endless number of dogs, chickens, pigs, kids and anything else you can imagine that kept coming out onto the roads.  It was all part of the fun.  Anyway, one of our stops was just before a massive hill.  The guide told us that it was only 3km to climb and we'd be at the top.  The 3km mark came and went and we were still climbing.  By this stage we were all thinking "it must be around the next bend". Suffice to say, we were thinking that for the next 3km.  We were all very tired at the top, but most of us made it which is great.  At this point, my finger was very sore and our guide had already organised a bamboo splint for me to use as the splint I was using just wasn't doing the job.  It's looking quite swollen, but i managed to bend it a bit.

We put the bikes on the trucks and jumped in the vans for a lengthy drive through the mountains to get us to the other side.  It's a good thing we did because the hills did not stop and the roads became quite bad.  If we'd kept riding, we'd still have been riding now.  We stopped for a lunch break and a little more driving before we jumped on the bikes again.  This time, we had a lot of downhill sections which made it quite fun.  However, it also made it a little dangerous, especially when it started to rain a bit.  This resulted in our second injury in as many days and it wasn't me this time.  Bryce was going around the bend a little too hot and it looks like the bike slid out and then threw him over the other side.  He damaged his elbow pretty badly as well as having several grazes and cuts.  His wounds were seen to and he was taken to the hospital as a precaution.  The cuts in his elbow were pretty deep as the road was quite rocky.  Thankfully, he's ok and didn't need any stitches.  we finished our riding section and headed to the hotel for a hard earned hot shower nice meal.

I'll leave you with a picture of the view from our lunch stop and the current state of my finger.  Tomorrow we visit the Plain of Jars, a small monastery and some bomb craters and trenches from the war in this region.

Day Two

We started off the day today setting up our bikes for the first ride of what we have begun to call the Tour de Laos.  We began the day with a 30km cycle to the Kuang Si Waterfalls.  These are an amazing set of small waterfalls that are fed by a much larger, much more impressive waterfall.  There are several pools that you can go swimming in so we took the opportunity to do just that.  In one of the pools there is a knotted rope attached to a tree so that you can swing from it and jump into the pool.  Of course I had to give it a go.  On my 3rd go, my hands were slipping from the rope so I held on tighter, but kept slipping.  By the time I hit the water my hand was hurting so I swam towards the edge to get out.  As I was swimming, I looked at my hand to see why it was hurting and found a rather badly dislocated middle finger on my left hand.  I got out of the pool and headed over to some of the group that was sitting nearby and announced that I needed a medic.  Someone suggested that it needed to be pulled back out, but no-one was that keen to do it, so i did it myself.  They helped me bandage it up and use my ring finger as a splint.  The result is the picture you see below.  It would have been great to have a picture before I pulled it out, but you'll just have to take my word on it that it was impressive.

All of this excitement happened before lunch!! We had lunch at the waterfall and then spent some time taking photos.  At the site of the waterfall is also a bear sanctuary.  These beautiful sun bears are being saved from ending up on dinner plates around Asia.  The organisation, free the bears (http://www.freethebears.org.au), was started by an Australian woman named Mary Hutton.  We spent some time watching the bears have their lunch and taking some photos of them.  We then jumped back on our bikes to head back to the hotel; another 30km.  We freshened up and then went into town for dinner at a nice little bar where one of our group, Simon, was playing his ukulele and Alicia was singing.  It was a nice night and the food was great.  I ate Luang Prabangers & Mash.  It was the traditional dish as we know it, but the sausages were typical of this area of Laos.  The place itself didn't really have any traditional Laotian food though, which was a little disappointing.

Tomorrow is probably going to be one of the toughest days as there are lots of big hills.  It is also the day that we leave Luang Prabang and ride towards Phonsavan.  As my finger is now throbbing and I have a big day tomorrow, I'm going to sign-off.  No guarantee that I'll have Internet access tomorrow so I'll update the blog again when I do.  I'll leave you with an image of Luang Prabang (it's off in the distance) from the top of the highest hill we climbed today.

Day One

Today was a very busy day.  We left the hotel in Bangkok at 7am to catch our Bangkok Air flight to Luang Prabang.  It was an exciting time as it was the first time that the whole group got to meet each other.  They are an interesting and fun group of people.  Our flight to Luang Prabang was on a small propeller plane seating about 100 people.  We got here in one piece.  The views from the plane as we were landing were great.  You could see the forest extend for what seemed to be forever (pictures below). The airport in Luang Prabang is very small and it felt a bit like stepping back in time as all the decor felt like it was from the 70s. Nonetheless it felt very welcoming. To give you an idea of how small the airport is, there is only one baggage carousel and for some reason it is still labelled with the number 1.  We cleared customs and met our tour guide who got us to the hotel.

The hotel we are staying is called the Villa Santi Resort and yes, it is as nice as it sounds which was a welcomed surprised.  We had a quick dip in the pool before heading out to tour a few of the Buddhist temples.  Laos has a strong Buddhist following and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered or they cannot enter them.  We were told that there are temples that the women cannot enter at all.  We visited one temple in particular that was on the top of a big hill that we had to climb a lot of steps to get to.  The view from up there was great and well worth the climb (photos are on the camera so will have to wait until I get them off).  Apologies that I haven't mentioned the names of any of the temples.  The simple reason is that I don't remember them and they don't had out flyers with information about the temples.

Following the climb down from the temple, we headed off to the famous Laos night markets.  There are heaps of stalls that the vendors set up and take down each night it seems.  There is so much colour and craft at the stalls, but it does get a bit repetitive.  Not wanting to spend all my money on the first night and the first place we'd been to, I was controlled.  It also helped that the market vendors are nothing like their counterparts in other Asian countries I've been to.  Not once did I get hounded to buy something and every time I stopped to look at something, the vendor would politely say hello or "sabaidi".  When you did want to buy something, you didn't even feel compelled to haggle.  Most things are quite cheap here. Finally, we all had dinner as a group and some kicked on for what I presume will be a long night.  Given tomorrow is our first day of riding, I thought I'd be a good boy and give it a miss.  Don't want to go too hard too early. :-)

Day Zero

We've arrived in Bangkok for a stop over after a fairly uneventful flight.  We leave for Luang Prabang in the morning.  I've met two of my fellow riders so far, Finn and Kath from Adelaide.  I'll meet the rest of the team in the morning.  I also discovered that I am the only one from Melbourne.  I'm not really sure how to feel about that.  On the one hand, it's good that Melbourne is at leave represented, but on the other hand, it's a little disappointing that there weren't more people.

Nothing much to report today.  I've had a night cap with Finn and now it's time for bed.  We have an early start in the morning.  Up at 6am and leaving for the airport at 7am.

Hopefully I'll have access again tomorrow and will update then.

Last training run

This weekend just gone was my last big training ride before the big trip.  Five colleagues and I rode the 75km round trip on Melbourne's Eastlink from Ringwood to Frankston.  The event was being held as a fundraiser for Hanover, an organisation working to prevent homelessness and lift people out of poverty.  Despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the ride, it was a very enjoyable day and wonderful to see so many riders in one place.  I've included below the statistics from the ride.  Interestingly, it didn't log the sections in the two tunnels right at the end which is why it only shows 70.96km.

Only 3 more days to go!!!

One Month To Go...

Yesterday marked exactly one month before we depart on our epic adventure to Laos and Cambodia.  Training is well on the way, flights booked, shots had, fundraising targets met, etc.  All that's left now is to buy some additional clothing, soak clothing in repellent, charge the cameras and pack.

I also bought a Contour+2 (http://contour.com/products/contour-plus-2) camera and a bike mounting kit that I plan to use over the couple of weeks that we are away.  I'm playing with it at the moment and taking some test videos.  If I get the chance, I'll post some up here before I go. I would love to get some feedback from you as to mounting positions you think might work.  Stay tuned.

Don't forget that even though the fundraising targets are met, the more we raise, the more can be done to support the Laos Water Project.  Donations can be made here.

Over and out.

Preparation Ride

This weekend I went on another ride with my mate Mike.  We ended up doing about 60km all up at an average pace of 22km/h. The ride was almost entirely on bike tracks, many of which were tricky to ride on and slippery too because of the rain that we had the day before and during the ride.  If it wasn't for that, I think we could have done a better average.  I tracked the ride with the Endomondo iPhone app, but it is in two parts because I accidentally stopped the tracking when we stopped for a short break.  Anyway, if you are interested, the data is below.  The data shows that we rode 51km, but I wasn't tracking some of the riding we did before and after, which would take it to about 60km all up.

Not long to go!

There are now just over 50 days before I set off with 15 others on our long cycling trip through Laos and Cambodia.  Training is now in full swing and with the help of all my supporters, we've raised almost the minimum target of $8000.00 for the Laos Clean Water project.  It has been a phenomenal effort.

On the training front, I've been riding consistently at least twice a week, but a recent trip to Europe and some work travel I've had to do has slowed down my preparation.  This week, I'm aiming to get out on the bike three times in total.  I rode to work yesterday, I'll ride again tomorrow and then a longer ride on the weekend.  I think if I can maintain three days consistently, I should be prepared enough.

Of course, no preparation would be complete without a visit to the travel doctor for the dreaded shots.  It's not that I don't like needles or that they bothered me, but as a precaution, the doctor decided that getting a tetanus shot would be a good idea.  "You never know when you might fall off and sustain a wound" she said.  "Better to be sure" she said.  That's all well and good, but if you've ever had a tetanus shot, you will know that your arm remains quite sore for days afterwards and that was something I was not looking forward to.  I tried to get out of it, but given that my last one was about 12 years ago, and they are only supposed to last for 10 years, I caved.  This was on Saturday.  It is now Wednesday and it is only just starting to feel normal again.

Visas are also now complete, but my wallet is now much lighter.  Between Visa fees, express post envelopes, passport photos, money order fees and $150 later, I should now be able to enter both Laos and Cambodia without hassle...I hope.  It was a worrying time though because the process is that you have to mail your passport to the embassy in Canberra, they do their magic and then send it back to you with a nice shiny sticker inside representing your entry Visa.  The whole time, your passport is completely out of sight and what gets done to it is out of your control.  I had to do this twice; once for each Visa.  I'm not suggesting that either the Laos or Cambodian Embassies would have done anything untoward with my passport, it's more that I had no idea where my passport was at any point in time.  I have to say that I was relieved with it returned to my both times.

I still need to work out what I will be taking with me and what I still need to buy.  Don't forget that you can still make donations at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/aldasilva.